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Kansas GOP to stymie ban in reversing abortion-rights ruling
Source: Associated Press
Kansas GOP to stymie ban in reversing abortion-rights ruling
By JOHN HANNA
January 12, 2020
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Top Kansas Republicans want to head off any push for an abortion ban in the state even as they make overturning a Kansas Supreme Court ruling that protects abortion rights a top priority.
The GOP-controlled Legislature expects to consider a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution during the annual 90-day lawmaking session set to convene Monday. It’s a response to the state high court’s ruling in April that the state’s Bill of Rights makes access to abortion a fundamental right.
“Our No. 1 focus is the constitutional amendment,” said Kansas House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins, a conservative Wichita Republican. “This is not going to be about banning abortions. It’s going to be about putting it back where it’s supposed to be, and that is with the Legislature.”
The debate in Kansas is coming after other states with Republican-led legislatures, including neighboring Missouri, moved to ban abortions early in women’s pregnancies. GOP leaders and the state’s most influential anti-abortion group, Kansans for Life, are pursuing a proposal that would allow legislators to regulate abortion as they see fit.
They’re being pragmatic: They worry that a ban is unlikely to get through the Legislature, and that even if it did, it would almost certainly fail a required statewide vote. They argue that it does the anti-abortion movement no good to push something that legislators or voters would reject.
-snip-
By JOHN HANNA
January 12, 2020
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Top Kansas Republicans want to head off any push for an abortion ban in the state even as they make overturning a Kansas Supreme Court ruling that protects abortion rights a top priority.
The GOP-controlled Legislature expects to consider a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution during the annual 90-day lawmaking session set to convene Monday. It’s a response to the state high court’s ruling in April that the state’s Bill of Rights makes access to abortion a fundamental right.
“Our No. 1 focus is the constitutional amendment,” said Kansas House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins, a conservative Wichita Republican. “This is not going to be about banning abortions. It’s going to be about putting it back where it’s supposed to be, and that is with the Legislature.”
The debate in Kansas is coming after other states with Republican-led legislatures, including neighboring Missouri, moved to ban abortions early in women’s pregnancies. GOP leaders and the state’s most influential anti-abortion group, Kansans for Life, are pursuing a proposal that would allow legislators to regulate abortion as they see fit.
They’re being pragmatic: They worry that a ban is unlikely to get through the Legislature, and that even if it did, it would almost certainly fail a required statewide vote. They argue that it does the anti-abortion movement no good to push something that legislators or voters would reject.
-snip-
Read more: https://apnews.com/c0e1758bc4810371ba40273fa1e10b55
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